Again, I apologize if anyone opened this thread thinking it would be about football. It’s not.
Those who are jumping on for the first time in a week may have missed some of this, but I’m recovering from surgery. I’m operating at a slow pace in my recovery for having an infected mass removed from my back below my left shoulder blade. It’s an infected area from the remains of an old cyst removal from 3-4 years ago. It came back.
I was able to cover both the baseball scrimmage and football game this weekend and get the magazine to the printer on time, as we’ve always done. It was more of a battle this time, working at my hotel in Little Rock.
I’m just moving slowly to start this week. Yesterday was a battle.
The report Monday afternoon from a visit to the surgeon is mostly good. I’m infection free. But he told me what he has been reluctant to explain in the two weeks after the surgery, this is going to take a long time to heal. It’s an open wound and is healing from the inside out. But I’m doing well. It’s just going to take well over another month.
Jean Ann knew because he told her while I was in the recovery room that this was a 6-8 week recovery. They want it healing from the inside slowly and eventually it will close and I won’t have to deal with this again.
The good news Monday is that I can begin to change the wound more often. I say I, but it’s really Jean Ann. It’s not in a place I can reach. So she is my shadow. She went to the game in Little Rock and we stayed two nights. I usually make it a down and back trip. Not this time.
So every time you unpack the gauze from deep in the wound and drag it out, you are speeding up the recovery. You bring out the bad and then pack it again. You don’t want any more information than that, although that may be more than you need.
I’m told to start using my left arm more. It pulls that wound area when I reach out with my left arm and hand. And, it caused intense pain if I reached to the sky. Sleeping was tough. You move and you are sure going to feel pain. Hard to sleep with pain and I hate to take the pain pills. They shut me down. Not any more. So all of this is a good sign.
Again, thanks for all the notes, emails, texts, etc. I feel the prayers and good thoughts.
I’m still working, but I just don’t get to as many things each day. I pick my spots. I’m told to move around more if I feel like it, even if it hurts a little. But none of us like to hurt too much. The doctor even told me yesterday to go fishing, although he added a disclaimer, “Just don’t fall in the river and get that unclean river water in your wound.” Well, that is always a threat, to slip on a rock and go down. I don’t fall often, maybe only once or twice in the last three or four years, but it can happen. I do cast with my right hand, although you maintain line control with your left hand and move it around quite a bit to do things correctly.
So maybe I don’t go wade fishing for another month, but I might ride with my son-in-law, guide Kristopher Bouldin, in his boat. Or maybe I go with Louis Campbell in his boat. At least there is hope that I might fish. Hope is all you need sometimes. Both have offered to take me for a little while this week, but Jean Ann seems to frown when I mention that. I probably do need to listen to her. She said, “I may have to call the surgeon and get permission, just confirm that he said that!”
Here is the link to the thread from the previous week if you missed it: